From HK...

doesn't seem like anything special here eh? story behind this is that i bought 2 pairs of jeans at some store (a HK brand that i saw before in Shanghai during my travels during JET)...and the salesgirls told me b/c i bought 2 pairs i could get a t-shirt for "basically" nothing. it was like buy 3 things and get 20% off, so somehow if i bought the tshirt and got 20% off the entire purchase it'd be like getting the tshirt for free...i tried doing the math in my head and couldn't get it...so they pulled out a calculator and showed me...i still didn't really believe them...but whatever. =P

initially i couldn't find a tshirt i liked so i just asked them to give me some extra off the 2 pairs of jeans and leave it at that...but they said they couldn't (or wouldn't, who knows?) but yeah...that was the promotion and they said there was no changing it so i finally happened to spot this one.




look closely...
















yeeah, i like weird stuff.

Just because...

(Kyoto: Kawaramachi-dori - 1900yen)


yeah, i know what you're thinking...







this t-shirt pretty much sums up one of the important caveats one needs to remember in order to fully enjoy Japan. somtimes...it just doesn't matter why. logic is not always present, nor does it have to be. this doesn't seem to bother anyone, so why should it bother the gaijin? in most cases, it shouldn't (there are exceptions of course, but i won't get into that can of worms...), and a lot of the time it can even become a hindrance. it's sort of like how the Japanese like to turn their brains off (from working hard/hardly working) and get smashed at a nomi-kai once/a few times a week. why so serious??? right? works for me!

=P

As any teacher would say...

i believe most would agree with the above t-shirt saying...ii desu ne?






ahh, soka...sometimes eigo in Japan does make sense...ne?

(Shinsaibashi - 1900yen)

be like me...

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...




...then the Japanese are a very modest, yet very flattering people i suppose.

i think ppl mostly associate cheap knock-off/replica clothing items with countries like Vietnam/Thailand/China etc...so i didn't expect to see a lot of that sorta stuff here in Japan. well, maybe it's an "asian" thing b/c low and behold...we still had it. still, i found the japanese imitations to be more tasteful, and they weren't really trying to duplicate designer labels per se...more like, imitate them in a tongue-in-cheek/stylish sort of way. i prefer that a lot more (not sure about the copyright/legal stuff); don't try and be something you're not, but take what's good and make it your own.


this one was from one of those stores that didn't let you try t-shirts on (jackets/pants/zip-up/button-up shirts are ok though)...so i was hesitant to bother buying something from them...but they were real nice and tried to be helpful buy suggesting a size, draping the shirt over my shoulders to size it up etc...and ultimately this t-shirt was one "original" to their shop (or so they said...i think they were telling the truth. i didn't see it anywhere else...and i've been to a lot of shops =P) so i bought it for something like 3000yen


(from Amemura "America Village" in Osaka's Shinsaibashi - Namba district)

Stereo-typically Speaking...

if Australia = Kangaroos/Koalas, and Africa = Zebras/Giraffes; then China = Pandas. or at least that seems to be the consensus in Japan...

for whatever reason, the souvenir shops in Kobe's Chinatown (Motomachi) had a lot of t-shirts w/ pandas on them. seeing as how i have so much "Chinese Pride", i felt obliged:



(from Kobe: 900yen)

and then again, when i visited Yokohama's Chinatown:



(from Yokohama: 900yen)

and another one from Kobe:



(i think i just got this one b/c it was GREEEEN...)


this next one isn't from any sort of Chinatown, just a shop in Osaka's Namba area that i perused occasionally. it was a bit more expensive, but a lot higher quality than the others (and it was on sale!):







(about 3000yen?)

finally, this last one was another cheapie from this goldmine of a cheapo-clothing store that i found in the Guch. i actually found it by accident...once again due to my curiosity.

Yoshino-sensei (1st year Japanese English Teacher from my first school) took me on a short bike ride during lunch to show me this grocery store close to the school. it was a lot nicer than my beloved Tamade, and had sort of a Save-On-Foods feel to it. she never told me where the mysterious escalator that was on your right when you entered the store led to...but one day after school/work when i was picking up some nikku-jagga i decided to check it out. (if this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because i have a habit of exploring strange, unknown places...)

it was like taking an escalator to (cheapie t-shirt) "heaven".

seriously though, i found so much good stuff there: odd tshirts, pants, shirts, shorts, odd Japanese "work clothes", oh...and tabi socks. tabi socks are the term for the traditional two-toed socks that are unique to Japan. you can buy them at specialty stores pretty much anywhere in Japan, but this store had a smaller selection (probably the less popular designs), but they were cheaper than what other places were selling basically the same thing for. about 290yen a pair vs. 390yen a pair on average. in any case, think of it as like...the Japanese "Zellers" or "Wal-Mart" clothing section. nothing high-end or fancy, but you know what? if you're good at digging (which i am), you're bound to find some hidden treasure...and if you like stores like Winners, then you know that hunting for (and finding) a bargain is just as fun as what you actually get:



.
.
.
.
.
...end transmission

Bend, but don't break...

i really like bamboo.

one thing i wish i could've taken back from Japan with me was a bamboo staff. they had them lying around everywhere at school; in the janitor's closet, in the locker room, just about anywhere. i should've tried to buy one at the 100yen store/Daiso lol...but alas i prbbly wouldn't have been able to take it home with me on the plane. it would've been a cool souvenir; a walking stick to use when i'm an old fart, and a "hobo-stick" that i could tie my lunch too with a cloth. that would be coool...

BUT, even though that didn't work out, at least i brought back a t-shirt:





this one was from Kyoto, in the basement of some multi-level chain store that sold all sorts of random stuff called Loft.




stand tall; bend, but don't break.

Gee-tar

didn't really know what the design on this shirt was until i brought it home and had a good look at it from a distance under some normal lighting. it was sort of like a "ooooh...so that's what it is..." feeling.

i recognized what these things on the back were, but thought the stuff on the front was some sort of bamboo/plant design(?).





yeeah, bamboo/plants these are not.


but in any case, i thought it was cool. picked it up at a Takeo Kikuchi store in the AEON mall at Dainichi station in the Guch.

this was a big ass mall/cinema complex that was completed just around November(?) of 2006, which was really bad news for Lee Sensei's bank account. a Japanese equivalent of Metropolis @ Metrotown, and only about a 10min. bike ride away from my apartment, this place ended up being where i spent a good portion of my free time going bargain-hunting and window-shopping. hey, i'm admitting it; i'm a guy, and YES i like shopping.

but wait...you knew that already.

Jap-Engrish

What on earth...??





O_o



i think i finally came to somewhat understand the novelty of English in Japan, by comparing how North American cultures seem to like having asian kanji/characters from other foreign languages printed on clothing/bags/accessories alike. i guess it makes sense in that regard...it's interesting, albeit not always in a very profound way.

being a "banana" myself (i'm Chinese but couldn't read a lick of it to save my life), i always made sure to ask the meaning/significance of whatever kanji were on a piece of clothing that i bought. especially after hearing about a severe case where someone had a "cool looking" kanji tattooed on himself, only to find out from some random observer one day that it meant "kitchen". i'm pretty sure the recipient of that brilliant work of art didn't have the career of chef in mind when he got it.

in any case, i bought these few for fun:



(front)


uh, what are they trying to say here? maybe reading what's on the back of the shirt would help...



(back)



...or not.


this last one is actually the first grammatical monstrosity that i bought, but it actually sorta makes sense:


(from Okinawa)



Translation: Beware the f.. .....

aah...you figure it out. =P

Goya anyone?

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"



if the above is true...then I'm sure Adi Dasler would be blushing:





This one's from Okinawa...one of the first places i started the mass t-shirt collection. Visited this southern-most "main" island of Japan in October/November of 2006, the first domestic flight i would take in Japan during my time here. some highlights of the trip would include cheap bacon sandwiches for breakfast, parades outside of Shurijo Castle, climbing trees outside the Okinawa Aquarium, scuba diving, catching a sunset from the cliffs, and drunken bhangra singing/dancing in the streets.

"Goya" or Bitter Melon is one of the staple foods of this region, and is recognized for it's health benefits which have led to the Okinawans being recognized as having some of the longest life-expectancies on Earth.

so i guess wearing this shirt will make me live longer...?

tsuru-kame

picked this one up in some funky shop in Osaka/Shinsaibashi that sold mostly womens clothing, lots of funky hippy jewelry, incense, and other weird stuff. lucky for me they had a small section of guy-looking clothing (although it's pretty hard to tell sometimes in Japan).

this is only one of many shirts i have that feature my amphibious, half-shelled brethren...but this one also has a tsuru (crane) on the front. the significance of this, i've been told, is that both creatures represent longevity and good luck in Japanese culture, and are commonly depicted together in scenes to illustrate the famous saying: "as the Crane one thousand years, as the Tortoise ten thousand years."

i'd always known the tortoise represented longevity etc...but this was the first time i'd heard this saying involving the crane as well. interesting...





(1000 years...)



(and 10,000 years x 4!)

(oh yeah, "kame" is Japanese for turtle/tortoise)

of monkeys & mice...

for me, the randomness of stuff in Japan is part of the country's charm. i don't think for a second that i would've bothered to buy t-shirts like these back home in Canada...but being in the hustle/bustle of Osaka, for some odd reason i guess i must've just felt compelled to(?)! it wasn't peer pressure or anything either...not like i'd ever really seen anybody around here wearing stuff like this...

but that's prbbly only b/c i bought them all first! =P



(obtained at this shop in Shinsaibashi, i don't really know why the monkey's holding a gun...or smoking a cigar...but i found the step-by-step instructions very useful, since i suck at drawing.)

more drawing help for fans of Mickey:





...now that i think of it, i never wore this Mickey Mouse shirt to school...or actually, i don't think i've EVER worn it, yet. too bad, b/c i had a student at one school who was quite the chatterbox, and her voice was so shrill and squeaky that it reminded me of one of those yappy little dogs you could hear from a block away. i swear, if she was talking to someone in the hallway i could hear her piercing voice from the staffroom, and quite often if i had to walk by or go get something outside i'd make sure to cover my ears and visibly express the pain that her voice was causing me. everyone seemed to find this rather amusing, and while she was a pretty genki kid in class and behaved for the most part, the thing that made it most memorable was the fact that it really did pain me to listen to that frequency for extended periods of time. her name was Mikki, hence i nicknamed her "Mikki Mouse".

actually, yeah it's probably better that i never wore this one to school. would've never heard the end of it...

starting the new year off with: Beeeeef

picked this one up on one of my two trips out to Yokohama. the second one...not the first one where i was homeless for a night on NYE, playing guitar to fellow street urchins at Sakuragicho harbour. that was an experience to be had...but once was enough right? riiight...

Happy New Year!